10 Rock Music Guitarists Who Outshone Frontmen
Make room for the real stars.
There's a certain amount of respect that comes with being the frontman of a band. No matter what happens in the studio, people are going to have their eyes drawn to you whenever they take to the stage.
You better make sure you have that stage presence though, cause you might have some competition in your own band.
Outside of the few singing guitar players, these six stringed spectacles have been able to play circles around the frontmen every time they took the stage.
As much as the singer may be able to get the crowd going and light up the room, the main draw is all about the moment where you can kick back and let the guitarists do their thing. It's actually pretty hard to pull off something like this if you think about it though.
Since you're not the one that has to worry about talking to the crowd, you only have your instrument to work with. Then again, these artists have been able to put every single ounce of their energy into their performance, which makes for one hell of a spectacle every single time they tear up a venue.
For a job that's meant for you not to talk all that often, these guitarists still manage to get their point across regardless.
10. Nuno Bettencourt - Extreme
By the end of the '80s, was there anyone who really cared about the glam rock movement anymore?
Since the new acts coming out at the time were people like Guns N Roses and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the era of the Sunset Strip brand of rock was starting to breathe its dying breath. Even when some of them rose to the top though, we were paying attention more to the playing than the song.
That's not to say that Extreme was only a remnant of the hair metal fad. Across all of their albums, Nuno Buttencourt's approach to guitar seems more in tune with the world of funk rock than the typical glam rock chords that you find out of Poison.
Every time that Gary Cherone opened his mouth though, it felt like you were just waiting to get back to Nuno's leads, which felt like they were assaulting you at every turn.
Just listen to something like Play With Me to get a load of the masterclass he takes you on, even sprinkling in little touches of traditional children's melodies along with his crazy scale runs. While the rest of Extreme served as a decent hair metal act to close out the revolution, what Nuno has been able to do with a guitar ever since is not human.